The potato is a widely cultivated vegetable and a very popular foodstuff. Baked potatoes, potato chips, and other variations of potato products are staple products that are widely enjoyed. Many efforts have been directed to the preparation of potato products and typical examples of patents directed to potato foodstuffs and methods of preparation include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,057,732; 3,764,344; 4,167,588; 4,420,494 and 4,520,034. It has been a primary objective of persons working in the art of potato foodstuffs, and methods of improving same, to utilize the entire potato including the skin. Even most recently, in fast food operations, bars and restaurants, baked potato skins have become a popular snack. A number of problems currently exist with the potato skin product. First, the preparation of a baked potato skin is rather time consuming since it involves baking the potato, slicing the potato in half and then removing the interior starchy portion of the potato. These operations are usually conducted by hand. Thereafter, the baked potato skin, if not promptly eaten, tends to absorb moisture, become soft and rather unsightly, thereby losing its appeal and flavor. Sometimes, such potato skins are continually reheated thereby becoming hardened, burned or rather tasteless.
Various attempts have been made as exemplified by the above patents to produce new potato products. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,588 issued to Willard discloses a baked potato product which is obtained by first baking the potato with its skin to provide the baked potato and subsequently separating the baked potato skins to form a baked potato peel fraction. The baked potato peel fraction is then formed into a slurry with binding agents including egg solids or other ingredients to form an essentially potato-based dough. The potato-based dough is then formed into an outer layer around the core of cooked potato mash to form an intermediate potato product which then may be again cooked. Efforts of preparing such twice-baked potato products inherently involve multiple steps and difficulties in separating a baked potato skin from the baked potato, then grinding and preparing the baked skin with other components to provide an intermediate product. Also, such a product becomes cooked twice, thereby tending to lose some of its natural flavor components. Other patents are directed to dough compositions including potato components. For instance, with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,344 to Glabe et al, a dough composition for a baked cup-shaped shell is disclosed in which durum wheat semolina is combined with glycerin, starch, and a potato peel flour along with other ingredients to make a shell. To the baked simulated potato shell is added mashed potatoes and the resulting product is baked again. Again, this is another example of a twice-baked potato product utilizing various components of the potato.
Improvements are still needed in this area of the art in order to more satisfactorily utilize the natural potato including its skin portion. There is a special need to prepare a potato skin product which is of consistent quality and very attractive for consumption. There is also a need for a method of processing potato products and all of its components in order to prepare attractive products which can be refrigerated and even frozen without loss of stability or flavor.